Reddie
by Energyintake
Summary: Richie Tozier and Eddie Kaspbrak, now around college-age, have recently reunited and are having a chat in Eddie's room. [ Richie x Eddie - Reddie ]


**This takes place before Richie and Eddie leave the area near Derry; Eddie's in college and Richie dropped out freshman year of it, but is doing well with stand-up and writing. They fell apart in highschool but have rekindled a bit when they realized they had a class together in college, and they didn't really know anybody else going to the school.**

\- Documents, scratched over with several different colors of highlighters and accompanied on either side of the margin by annotation after annotation, were splayed all over Eddie's desk upstairs. He was holding his head in his hands, his elbows resting ontop of a few books and his heart carving at the inside of his chest with the speed in which it was beating.

\- He was staring down at himself. His white button-up shirt lay untucked ontop of his khakis and his bare feet were tapping the floor, which he hadn't even realized he'd been doing. Just as he forced himself to stop, his bedroom door was shoved open, and he shrank into his chair, startled by the shadow there.

\- "Hey, fuckface!," Richie greeted, visible in the lamplight a moment later when he took a step inside. His hair was a little longer than usual, sweeping around his face quite nicely, but not getting to the point of overtaking his glasses et. He was just in jeans and a tee-shirt. "Oh, gross," he commented upon seeing all of the work Eddie had out, "glad I don't have to deal with that _bullshit_ anymore." With that, he threw himself onto Eddie's bed and folded his arms behind his head, making himself plenty comfortable.

\- "I hate my stupid, _stupid_ fucking accounting classes," Eddie complained, turning in his chair to rest his head on its back and face his friend. "It doesn't make any sense! I get that math matters, atleast when it comes to the part of business I'm going into, but I just don't get why I can't just learn, only what I need to! Y'know?"

\- "Yeah. That's why I dropped out."

\- Eddie looked crestfallen. "I know. It sucks without you around campus though."

\- "You didn't even see me that often," Richie countered, sitting up a little bit and folding his knees against his chest. "You're a commuter, and we had like, two classes together."

\- "Still."

\- "You don't think maybe living on campus would be a little better? Then your mom wouldn't be breathing down your neck all the time. Y'know. Like she was breathing on my dick. Yesterday."

\- "Shut u-u-up," Eddie groaned, standing up and moving to lay down on the bed near Richie. "I couldn't do that to her; she'd have a fucking stroke. Plus she paid for a bunch of my books and all that, so I figured I should help around the house to kind of make up for it."

\- A small silence stretched out before them, but was broken by Richie before too long. "...Remember Mr. Galloway's class?"

\- "The english class?," Eddie murmured.

\- "Yeah. How he made us make paper airplanes the first day, and then write out the instructions so someone else could do it. That stupid ass exercise?"

\- "Oh yeah...! You fucking got kicked out, too!," replied Eddie as he pushed himself into a sitting position, smiling. "You never told me why."

\- "Well I didn't have any notebooks or anything, right? And you know I only bought like two books before I just went and dropped out, right?"

\- "...Right."

\- "Well I tore pages out of the english book to make the planes with. And when the teacher told me to stop, I just threw it at him. I ran into the hallway and he just about hurled that book at me!"

\- Eddie laughed, criss-crossing his legs and nudging Richie's knee with his hand. "That's hilarious! He deserved it for sure. That dick made us buy books _he_ wrote just because he wanted the money. We barely even used them."

\- Their laughter continued for a moment. "Well," Richie breathed, "I guess I got one good thing out of that college; you!"

\- "I'm sure we would've wound up contacting eachother at some point even if we hadn't gotten accepted to the same school. Atleast, I hope so."

\- Richie looked up from playing with a stray thread hanging off of the blanket he and Eddie were sitting on. "You really think so?"

\- Eddie squared his shoulders nervously, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious. "Well, yeah. I mean, I haven't seen the others in forever. But I figured atleast _we'd_ still talk."

\- Another much longer moment of silence preceded Eddie's words, which just made him more embarrassed. He tipped his chin down a little bit, which Richie noticed. Not wanting his friend to feel uncomfortable, and having just been enjoying the moment, Richie quickly spoke up. "Oh of course not! I mean, I wouldn't ever be able to forget you. I mean, I'm going to be your step-dad after all, just after I propose to your mo-"

\- He was cut short by a curt punch to the shoulder from his friend, whose action was betrayed by his smile. Richie, feigning an expression of offense and shock, then shifted onto his knees to try and get Eddie back. Eddie wasn't quick enough to get off the bed in time before Richie grabbed him and shoved him down against the covers. "You're just mad because the only vagina you've ever seen, I've seen like, nine times," he claimed boastfully.

\- Eddie rolled his eyes, swiping out an arm that was then swiftly cuffed around the wrist and pushed back down onto the bed. Raising his eyebrows, he suddenly became a lot more aware of the position they were in, and so did Richie. "Oh, shit," Richie mumbled under his breath, scrambling off and moving to sit back down, avoiding eye-contact obviously enough.

\- "No! Wait," Eddie said, sitting up, "I'm sorry."

\- "What?," Richie replied, looking confused. Eddie had never seen him blush before. All the stupid shit he did all the time, all the trouble he got into, he never was caught looking phased in the slightest. But here he was. Flustered. "I-It's cool."

\- Eddie moved closer, causing Richie to sink back against the pillows a little bit. "...Ahah!," Eddie cackled. "I knew it!"

\- "You knew what?!," Richie defensively retorted.

\- "You, like me."

\- Richie looked horrified, but this expression faded when he realized there was gratitude and smugness written all over Eddie's expression. Then... then, he looked relieved. "As, as if you didn't like me first!"

\- "I did not!"

\- "Did too!" Richie kicked out a foot, successfully pushing Eddie onto the floor. Laughter ensued. Everything was only ever getting better.


End file.
